Via Crof's blog (invaluable, as always) I learned of the decision of Massachusetts state health officials to vaccinate state prisoners before the rest of the population:
Prison officials warn that inmates could quickly spread the flu if not inoculated -- particularly those in high-risk groups such as AIDS patients.Middlesex Sheriff James DiPaola told the Boston Herald that prisons were the perfect flu "breeding ground."
DiPaola dealt with riots in a Cambridge jail when rumors of swine flu spread there. (AP)
State legislators are already complaining that there are other, more vulnerable groups that deserve to be at the head of the line. That's probably true, but like a lot of things about flu, this one raises some knotty questions which we can choose to ignore but which we shouldn't. Let me raise a couple of them.
